Around seven years ago, a coach of japanese students stopped next to me as I was walking down the road and the tour guide asked me where the Chaplin museum was. I replied that as far as I knew, there wasn't one!

But that's now changed: on the 17th April "Chaplin's World" opened, and we've been for a visit to check it out.

On a recent bank holiday weekend we went and had breakfast at one of our favourite 'special occasion' coffee shops, and then I forced the girls into walking home with me (a 2 mile walk, downhill all the way). Despite the load protesting, the stopped as soon as the car (with Mamma) was out of sight, and we had a lovely sunny stroll, past sheep, horses, and with a wonderful view.

It's a not too exciting anniversary today, but here is Rebecca sporting the first new bit of technical progress to (hopefully) make a difference in the last three years. For those up to date with the lingo, it is a FreeStyle Libre, poor man's CGM. For the others, you wodge one of these into the back of your arm, and it stays there for 14 days, during which you can use the reader to 'scan' your current blood sugar, and all the blood sugars from the last 8 hours. This is many different times of cool, even though it doesn't (unfortunately) replace the spiking your fingers.

We've been trying for a few weeks now, no final verdict yet, but it's interesting stuff.

My trusty Sony DSC-W30 nearly made it to ten years old (original battery and all), but two weeks ago the telescopic lens didn't want to open any more. As I explained to Rebecca, if it ain't bust, don't fix it, but if it is bust, there's nothing to lose. So I opened it up, and marvelled at the ingenuity of the engineers who manage to fit so much into such a small space. Unfortunately, my ingenuity didn't stretch to plugging the flat ribbon connectors back in properly, and it appears to be properly borked now. So I'm currently eyeing up a DSC-WX220.

Just under two years ago, the girls switched from 'classical' to hip-hop. Last month was the big 'show' after two years practice. A very 'full' week with rehearsals, dress rehearsals, then doing the show 3 times in two days. But they had a whale of a time, and I must say that it was that good that I think it would have been worth seeing even if my daughters weren't in it!

This absolutely MUST NOT be done. My sister is mentally handicapped
due to a childhood injury (near cot death, only saved as a doctor
happened to be staying with us that night); she can function and she can
work but effectively has the mental capacity of a 12 year-old.

In the good old days when the UK had people with the capacity for
intellectual thought in Parliament there were no problems; she had a job
sweeping the floors of a supermarket and stacking shelves. Sure, she
made a few mistakes and needed supervision but that was fine for the
supermarket as she wasn’t earning much and not earning much was fine for
her as she wasn’t in it for the money as it was the sense of
well-being, the companionship of being with co-workers and the overall
feeling of “normality” that gave her the pride to get up every morning,
put on her uniform and go to work.Then it all changed. Some mindless SJW decided that this was
discrimination and needed to be ended; there was some campaign where
other people with apparently similar brain function to my sister signed
various petitions and, before we knew it, the government had succumbed
to the collective insanity and abolished the minimum wage exemption.

The net result was that the supermarket could no longer afford the
slow work, the mistakes, and the supervision required for someone
earning her new wage and she had to be let go. Now my sister earns less
than she did (her disability allowance still covers her living costs but
now she can’t go down to the local for a drink on a Friday with the pin
money she previously earned). The cost to the government has stayed the
same (or increased slightly as I think they offset some of that pin
money against her allowance). But most importantly my sister has turned
from feeling like a useful member of society, doing a job and mixing
with “normal people” to a depressed mentally handicapped person, with no
job, no sense of self-worth and whose only interaction with “normal
people” are the workers at the checkout at her former job and the people
who help out at the local community centre.I do not blame the supermarket for this at all – it isn’t their
shareholders’ job to maintain employment for all; it is our job, as
intelligent and social beings, to ensure that we provide the best
possible life for the unfortunate. Any moron could tell that this would
happen; but unfortunately the people who we inflict upon ourselves when
voting aren’t even intelligent enough to be morons.

"After this interesting discussion, we remain of the opinion that photovoltaic technology, at least for Switzerland and Germany, is leading our society towards an enormous destruction of resources. In this connection we see elements of questionable conduct from some politicians, against which the civil society should counter-attack."

"the church must learn not to be afraid of any learning that helps us understand the people, events, and backgrounds of the biblical story better, even if we end up being forced to reexamine some of our long held pet interpretations"

Incidentally, this is why most big business is in favour of remain: they've already spent the money on compliance, and they also have people at the table making up the new regulations (yes, once they've finished one set, they start on the next). And all of this is a perfect (though underhand) form of protectionism: keeping the competition at bay. But obviously making the consumer poorer.

Saturday, May 07, 2016

David MacKay is dead. A big hero, though I never knew much about him. But I did buy, read, love (and lend) his book Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. Download it, or watch the video, and learn you some science and realism. Take-away point: "If you want reliable (low-carbon) electricity supply in the winter, you need nuclear, and once you have nuclear, there's not much point spending money on wind".

Of course, if you say "Who is Eugene Peterson?" I'll have to shoot you :)

"I would love if this conversation would inspire people who are writing these beautiful… gospel songs, to write a song about their bad marriage. Write a song about how they’re pissed off at the government. Because that's what God wants from you, the truth," Bono said. "And that truthfulness …. will blow things apart."

Part of the reason for my increasing irregularity on this here blog is that for the last 18 months or so I've been involved in creating a homeschooling association for this part of Swissland. This involves an inordinate amount of emails (which I'm quite good at), and being organised, proactive and not forgetting stuff (uhrm, not so good).

It's fun, and scary too. Homeschooling doesn't have such a long (recent) history in these parts, so the gut reaction of the 'the man on the street' is agin. So when the authorities start making noises about clamping down, you have to take it seriously.